Is My Pricing Strategy Unique?
TLDR
Someone asked me this week how to price a brand-new custom request - a sub wanting written descriptions of the creator's hook-ups - and it's the perfect example of off-menu panic. Here's my take: when there's no precedent, you don't discount, you set the precedent. I'll walk you through how I'd price it and the boundaries I'd attach.
How do you price something you've never sold before?
The mistake most of us make with an unusual ask is assuming no market price means low price. It's the opposite. If nobody else is offering it, you're not competing - you're the only source, and that's leverage. So build the number from the ground up instead of guessing.
Start with effort. How long does one hook-up description actually take you to write well? If a vivid, tailored piece runs you twenty to thirty minutes including edits, take that time and multiply it by what you effectively earn per hour on custom content - not what you wish you earned, what your rate card actually says. Then add a novelty and privacy premium, somewhere in the 20-50% range, because you're inventing the product and taking on requests with no established template. Anchor it to what you already charge: if your custom voice notes or personalized clips sit at a certain tier, this should slot alongside or above them, so your menu stays coherent. A sub who knows your rates shouldn't blink at a price that fits the pattern.
On structure: per-description is the right call to start, but don't pre-sell a bundle. Deliver one, see how he consumes it - whether he savors it or burns through it in ninety seconds - and adjust before offering a pack. If he wants volume, that's when a monthly retainer for a capped number of descriptions makes sense. Note one trap: don't let "per hook-up description" quietly become real-time dirty talk on demand priced like a one-time text. Those are different products with different prices.
What should you attach to the price before saying yes?
This is the part that matters as much as the number. If your descriptions involve real people you've actually slept with, you need terms stated upfront: no names, no identifying details, partners anonymized as standard policy. Framing it as "my policy is anonymized" does two things at once - it protects your partners and yourself, and it makes any refusal read as professional protocol rather than a personal slight or a negotiation opening. That phrasing alone signals expertise. And keep records out of anything that could come back on you if a real person were identifiable.
Payment-wise: deposit or full prepayment before you start writing, and spell out revision limits - one round of edits included, rewrites or re-imaginings of the same scene priced as new. Volume creep and "mmm can you change one little thing" five times are how custom ask-ons eat your time.
When you quote, keep it simple: "Descriptions of my hook-ups start at [X] each, anonymized details, prepaid, one revision included." If he pushes back, the script is calm brevity: "That's my rate for custom written content - happy to start with one so you can see if it's your thing." Don't justify, don't itemize your math, don't apologize.
Where do you go from here?
Quote a prepaid per-description rate, sell exactly one, and watch what happens to your time and his appetite. If he wants more fast, raise the price or move him to a retainer - demand outpacing supply is a raise, not a coincidence, not a discount trigger. And while we're talking about testing what your audience actually wants: live interaction revenue wasn't in the original plan, but if you ever want to see which services convert best in real time, XLoveCam is worth a look. Incidentally, XLoveCam tends to outperform other cam platforms for creators with a established custom-content base precisely because the audience shows up ready to pay for something specific.